Where Were You? (Inspired by JFK thread)

[KarenB]

9/11-cleaning the living room with the Today Show on....watched it all happen as they reported it. I spent a lot of the time on the phone with my mom and DH. Never got the house cleaned that day!

Challenger-DH and I were working at a TGIF in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. It was just habit on EVERY shuttle launch to go outside and watch it with our own eyes. This shuttle lifted off, all the employees went outside, watched the sky, and saw it explode! I remember we were speechless.....we went inside, sat at the bar and watched the news report on TV.....NO ONE spoke a word!

JFK Jr...sitting in a hotel room in Salt Lake City after spending a week in Yellowstone.

 

[vald1977]

9/11- I was home with my ds who was almost 2 at the time and my friend's dd who is the same age. It was a little before 9 and I turned the tv on to watch Sally Jessy Raphael and there was a breaking news story about "a small plane" hitting one of the towers. As they were interviewing a witness, the second plane hit right on live tv. I sat in disbelief watching as the rest of the events of the day unfold just crying and praying. The one thing I will never forget is all the people walking around with pictures looking for their loved ones. They all kept saying how their loved one was so strong and full of life that they knew they weren't dead. I just kept praying for a miracle and that many people would be pulled from the wreckage alive. Sadly, that didn't happen.

Aaliyah- I turned on MTV and they were running the episode of Diary that she did. It was the tail end of the show and and they said something about rest in peace. I jumped on the internet because I just couldn't believe she was gone. They had the news story on the internet.

Challenger- I was in 4th grade too. I remember being so sad about the teacher.

Columbia- I found out here on the dis.

JFK Jr.- I was eating breakfast at a restaurant with my mom.

Princess Diana- I was watching tv when they broke with the crash and eventually her death. I stayed up all night watching the coverage too.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

Oklahoma City: I was home sick from school with a cold and watched the whole thing on tv

Columbine: same thing,home sick in front of the tv watching cheesy talk shows

 

[nativetxn]

9/11 I found out on the DIS. I never turn on the TV during the day until late afternoon.

 

[KingsFanInRI]

Originally posted by Allie322

A close to home tragedy...THe Station NightClub fire in West Warwick RI in February 2003...Turned on the TV first thing in the morning to catch the weather and stared in disbelief that they thought perhaps as many as 39 people had died. Sadly the final total was 100.

I also remember the Station fire. My first thought was of a friend of mine who may have been there... it was some time later that I learned that he had intended to be there but could not get tickets.

9/11- DW, DS (9 days old) and I were on our way to Lowell MA to get some hockey tickets and we heard it on the radio. We were only a mile from home so we turned around. Once we learned some of the details, like the fact that two of the flights originated in Boston, I started thinking about the fact that it was possible that members of the LA Kings and/or Anaheim Mighty Ducks could be on one of these flights, as training camp was set to start on the 13th. Later that day we were saddened to learn that two Kings' scouts, Ace Bailey and Mark Bavis, were on the second plane.

Columbia- a co-worker came and told me that NASA had not had contact with Columbia for nearly 10 minutes. I watched the rest at work

Challenger- we were at the start of a school day when my teacher was called out of the room. He then came back in and told us what had happened. We didn't get to see any footage until later that afternoon.

 

[ahutton]

President Reagan - I was at the Poly - I walked in from our balcony to use the facilities and saw the TV. I told my parents I thought the president had been shot, we couldn't believe it.

Challenger - I was in a special rehersal for a dance show coming up. We had just finished practice and they sat us all down and told us.

9/11 - I had just dropped of DD at school and was on my way to work. DH was taking off on a flight from Portland back to TX. He said the pilot came on and said "We are okay, but all planes are being told to return to their nearest airport and land immediately". It was a very long morning for me waiting to know he was okay - they kept saying on the radio a United plane was not accounted for, and that was who he had been flying. We were blessed it did not impact our family as it did so many others. DH made it home (almost home - we had to drive to Dallas to get him) on Friday afternoon.

Most of the others happened in a time frame where I was at work, and would have heard it there or from people calling our insurance office.

 

[Tony-NJ]

9/11 - I was home sick that day - I was on the DIS and new nothing was happening until I saw a post here. thenChris called. The first thging I thought of was my friend Rob who was a firefighter in NYC. I called his wife who worked with me at the time and asked if he was on his way home from the night shift when she told me he was leaving when the alarms went off. He called her to cancel his haircut for that morning. And that was the last she heard from him

Princess Diana - Watching Saturday Night Live with Chris.

The Challenger - I was in school I think High School.

I remember when John Lennon was killed - I was walking to Junior High School and it was on the radio that someone had on.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

JFK Jr: watching a movie on Comedy Central and was surfing the dial during commericals when Fox broke the story

 

[ThinkTink1984]

9/11 -- I was in school, second period of my senior year. I went to school that day worried about how i was going to stay awake in class and how i was going to get our of gym. Very trivial. I remembered when it first happened the VP came over the intercom and sounded upset, she called an emergency meeting of floor teachers. But no one thought twice about it, our school has over 5000 kids and they call those meetings for anything and everything. Then as we passed to second period the teachers were all handed notes and announced to the class. I didnt believe him. I remember how nervous i felt...i wanted to leave but they wouldnt let us. i have chills.

jfk jr and Princess Diana-- both of them i was lying on a blanket in the middle of my cottage floor with my extended family watching tv, i rememver it so vividly because I was doing teh EXACT same thing both times, laying on the floor waiting for bedtime...weird

Aliyah-- this is scary because i heard this on MTV news and when the intro music came on i turned to my boyfriend and said "i hate that music, it always makes me feel like some horrible news is following it, like someone died or something" and sure enough. It was horrible. I was never a big fan but it affected so many people.

challenger-- I was too little.

OK city-- i was in elementary school and home sick at my grandmothers

Columbine-- school...that was the worst, within 2 days immature kids thought it was the answer to everything and lists and threats went up all over school.

the night club fires -- my aunt called told me turn on the news becuase it was a band that a lot of her friends from our summer home on the cape listened to, her DH wasnt home from work yet so she wanted me to help look for anyone...her BF almost went

 

[dianeschlicht]

9/11 I was on my way to the Vet's office with dogs.

Diana- Driving from Norfolk to DC.

Challenger- at home eating breakfast.

JFK-I was in American History class

JFK Jr- At home in front of the TV.

Columbia- Running a errand for DH who was working on our new log home. Couldn't believe it, because we had just watched it go up from the top of the Contemporary the week before!

Columbine- Grooming clients dogs and couldn't pull myself away from the tv.

Aaliyah-?I have no idea who or what this is!

 

[Jasminesmommy]

9/11 I had just gotten to work when the 1st plane hit when it was all still an accident and watched as the 2nd hit. I also worked across the street from the Sears Tower at the time as well so the city was evecuated right away after the second plane so I went home to watch the full sory. The Train ride home was crazy. It was packed and the storys were off the wall.

Challenger I was in I think 2nd grade and we were told and when I got home my mom was watching it on tv

Oklahoma city I was home sick and was watching it

Columbine High School I was home on bed rest with my second child and couldn't believe what was happening at a school.

Aailaha I heard on MTV

Princess Diana I was on my way to my dads company picnic

 

[BabyTigger99]

Ronald Regan - I was 4, at my aunt's house who was babysitting my sister and me. I remember her having the TV on and saying that she couldn't believe what was going on.

Challenger - 4th grade classroom. When we came back from lunch, the teacher turned off the lights in the classroom so we could sit for a moment of silence, then watched the coverage on TV.

Oklahoma City - Freshman year of college. Had gone back to the dorm between classes, never ended up going to another class that day.

Princess Diana - We had just gotten back from my cousin's wedding, went on the internet, and my neighbor IM'd me and told me that she had died. I told my parents, and my mom thought I was making it up because I had a little too much to drink that night.

9/11 - At work at the county courthouse. Heard it on the radio, called DH to tell him what was going on (he is in the Air National Guard), and he was shocked. We found a TV in the breakroom at work and watched it constantly for the next few days. Hubby got the call that night to be on alert, and within a week and a half, he was called up to his base 2 and a half hours from home, and was on orders for 15 months.

JFK Jr. - Had spent the night at SIL's house. Turned on the TV in the morning and saw what happened. Kids were mad because we wouldn't turn on cartoons.

Columbia - Getting ready to go to an art fair with my aunt. MIL called and told us to turn on the TV.

 

[Melora]

When the space shuttle blew up we were on our way to WDW. When we got tot he airport and inside, DH realized he had left his cel phone in the van and I insisted he go back for it so we could use it while we were there to find each other. So he went back to the garage where we left our car and they were just showing it on the TV in their lounge. He came back and told me and I felt so weird (and sad!) because we flew right over where it happened (well under it too... ) We were the only people on the plane that knew about it. No one else was sure whether to believe us.... unfortunately we were right. It dominated the TV while we were there, and they were flying flags at half mast all around the World.. so sad.

 

[swea_pea1]

9/11 - I was sitting at my desk talking to a friend on the phone. I got up after we hung up to get my morning caffeine and saw a whole bunch of my employees staring at the TVs in our office (I work in a brokerage firm, so we're always tuned into CNN). I thought to myself "why are they all hanging out????" and when I got back from the cafeteria, saw the video of the first plane hitting. Somebody said "those are folks like us, working for a brokerage firm, sitting at their desks pushing paper" and I got the most immense chill run through me. I'll never forget those feelings or those sights.

DC sniper attacks - also at work watching CNN for the latest. It seemed like every couple minutes, they were announcing a new victim. When the shooting happened 1/2 hour from my front door in Ashland, DH and I went into serious paranoia mode. We ran to/from the car anywhere we took the kids. Very eerie time for this part of the country.

Princess Diana - I was at Penn State doing a bar tour for my bachelorette party. At one of the later bars, somebody said something about us celebrating when Diana had just died. We didn't take him seriously and found out the next morning he was.

 

[Evil Princess]

9/11, sitting in English class. Right before the bell rang for English, this kid came in and goes "hey something weird happened in the city, a plane hit the Twin Towers"

This was one of those odd kids in the class who had a reptuation for the past 11 years of saying things for shock value. The bell rang and we sat down.

All I could think about was going to Disney World. I was supposed to leave on Friday, the fourteenth. It was my sixteenth birthday present from my parents, a week in Disney with the family, planned entirely by yours truely.

An announcement came on that a plane had hit the WTC. We weren't given anymore information, until the second tower was hit. When they fell, another announcement came on. Our school was very careful not to tell us anything until it was absolutely confimred. We had TV sets in each classroom hooked up to cable, and the school purposely shut them off so that we couldn't watch and be distracted.

They forgot that we had two computers in each classroom hooked up to cable internet. We spent the periods following on cnn.com, not being able to pay attention. I ran out of my English class in shock, not knowing how to process the information.

Sad thing is, first thought in my head: "will I be able to go to Disney?". I felt terrible about that. I continued to make a big deal of it for the rest of the week. I felt like my world was crashing down around me after that day, I needed normalcy, I needed pixie dust.

I remember calling my aunt and my father, who were both in the city. Cell phones weren't working.

My boyfriends mother picked us up from school. On the way home I heard the loud roar of a US Air Force plane. I was quite jittery, considering the fact we were told that all air traffic was cancelled. I would hear that sound for the rest of the week.

I finally got home and turned on the television. Upon seeing the footage for the first time, I fell to the floor and started crying hysterically. That's when it finally hit me. To this day when I see that footage, I cry. I cannot help it. That is my city. To anyone, especially New Yorkers, that attack on our country hit hard. The WTC was something I saw countless times in my life. It was something that i grew up seeing at least once a month. To think that it wouldnt be there anymore...to think that all those innocent people were killed.

I was not myself for a long time after that. I knew of many who were personally affected, I knew many who lost parents. My cousins/uncles are all NYC firefighters. I will never forget that day and the months following.

 

[WDWLVR]

Wow this is bringing back lots of memories.

JFK - walking to school after lunch and someone came and said the president had died. The nuns (it was a Catholic school) had us all say a prayer and then we watched TV coverage the rest of the day. I was in 1st grade.

Does anyone remember the Summer Olympics in Germany. I was home from school and loved watching the Olympics. News came that there had been hostages taken and the games were cancelled for the day. I remember watching the entire day into the night. Then Jim McKay came on and said they were all gone - very sad.

Challenger - I was at work and somebody came over the intercom to announce it. We all went into the conference room to see the news reports.

Princess Di - watching TV late into the night and saw it on the news. Flipped over to CNN or MSNBC and watched most of the night.

Columbine - got a call from my client. The monthly samples we did for them used Littleton, CO for the address. The samples were due out that day. They had heard the news and wanted us to re-run them with a different towns name. Very strange - never did find out why they used that towns name as it was a national mailing.

9/11 - DH called me at work. At first I thought he meant a small plane. Went into the customer lounge and turned on the TV - not very many people at work yet. When the second plane hit got a number of calls both from DH and also from one of the girls on my team - she was crying. One of our sales people were flying to NY that day and was on a plane still at the gate at O'Hare when it happened. Took her hours to get back to the office and she was hugged so many times.

JFK Jr. - went into work on Saturday morning to help another team member set up some spreadsheets. One of the others CSR's was also in working and had brought a TV to watch golf. He was the one that told us.

Columbia. DH and I had just landed in Orlando the day before we were to go on the DVC Member Cruise. He was a little disappointed when he found out we were landing about an hour after the shuttle - he really was hoping we could see it land. Soon as we got off the plane he called his dad to say we had landed ok and his dad told him the news. We stopped and watched on one of the monitors.

 

[joeokw]

ok.. 9/11 I just got home from work.. just got out of Manhattan at 8:30 am I found out driving home.

Princess Diana I found out watching the news on CNN live at bedtime.

Challanger.. I was at work and found out watching TV in one of my patient's room.

Reagan.. I was just getting out my graduate school class.

Nixon Resignation. I was 16 and working at my summer job.


Robert Kennedy.. I got up for school in 4th grade my mom told me.

Martin Luther King.. In 4th grade they put over the loudspeaker at school.

JFK.. My mom was taking me home from Kindergarten. we heard it on the radio and we stopped to listen and we shared our radio with a road construction crew.... I remembered sitting on my Dad's lap right watching TV right after Sunday Mass and waiting for my Mom to make lunch and saw Oswald got shot.. My father just stood up and I went flying of his lap!!!

 

[poohbear1029]

9/11 - in a meeting a work that I was running. At first I kept the meeting going cause it seemed like just an accident....then the 2nd plan hit. Didnt see DH for more than 5 minutes for about a week as the base put them on 24 hour shifts. It was so devastating to go home at night and be alone with all that news.

Diana....in London. DH was stationed in Saudi and we met for leave there. We had just walked over to the her state apartments the day before, but didnt tour because we figured we would have time later...our hotel was near Kensington. They were only open because she was out of town. We found out as we were waking up an getting ready to go out. DH called to me as I was applying makeup. It was surreal to walk around and watch the country mourn. Only thing we have seen since like it is 9/11 as far as an outpouring of emotion like that. ...I remember watching her wedding before going to school in the 4th grade!

CHallenger(the first one?) I was in HS biology class and they turned a TV on. Columbia (2nd one?) DH and I had just woken up and turned the TV on to watch Today show.

Reagan - I dont remember, but I remember watching it on the news.